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Clear skies and cloudy days

Summer arrived last night with a horrific storm, knocking out electricity and throwing us into the dark. Fortunately, my iPad still worked and I continued my reading. My phone also worked so I called Kathy. She was frightened. She has a ginormous tree in her yard hovering over her little house, and every storm worries her. The tree looks solid to me, but around here you cannot be certain. Trees in urban areas are under siege. Trees everywhere are feeling the stain. Connie said the beetle damage in the Rockies was quite evident. Fortunately, some birds on the East Coast, woodpeckers I think, are finding the gypsy moth larvae tasty.

Clare our little Pom was agitated by the storm. I began to take notice of the weather outside, when she jumped in my lap. She has adopted David, and I am the last person chosen last for lap sitting, so I knew something was amiss when she hopped on then off my lap and began running around the room. Dogs are so clever. David and I know they are children in fur suits.

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Lately, I have had several books on the go, one of them Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship with Cats and Dogs, by David Grimm. It had to happen. Dogs and now cats are demanding their rights. Fellow canine loving pals, this book won’t tell you anything you don’t already know…yes, you can communicate with dogs, and probably cats too, but it’s a good read. My dogs understand many words, and use body and sign language to communicate with me, how about you?

But it’s not just communication. The have the full range of emotions we humans have. They can be happy and sad. They understand what is fair and what is not. They know if they have been bad or good. I have never hit my dogs. Even old dogs are trainable. ( And yes, I was a fan of the Dog Whisperer for many years. I’d still watch him if I got that TV channel.) Important…dogs can warn us when a bad storm is approaching, although not all dogs do this. Some are better at other tasks.

Just you wait … there’ll come a time when people will want to marry their dogs. Anyway, our dog is also terrified of t’storms. She likes to hide under/behind the toilet! We’ve tried a thunder shirt … it works to some extent. And then there are the trees — no thunder shirts for them.

As for trees, our giant horse chestnut fell during a windstorm in Chicago. It was such a shock. We knew the tree was not doing well, but we didn’t expect it to just fall over. Thank goodness it fell toward the street. If it went the other way, the house would have had serious damage.

My daughter (an early childhood educator before she retired ) says that there isn’t much difference between a three-year-old child and her dogs. Dunno — I’m not a dog person, but hers seem happy and well-managed, just like her kids were (when they were threeish instead of 30ish).

Lovely photos of the travels. It was a doozy of a storm wasn’t it? Fortunately we didn’t lose our electricity. Our sweet dog always used to know when was of us was sad or not feeling well. Many a time she would lay her head on my lap when I was feeling a bit off.